Tory MPs put boot into ‘authoritarian’ Drakeford and Sturgeon after no new restrictions announced in England
Conservative MPs and Senedd Members have gone on the attack against the Welsh and Scottish governments after Prime Minister Boris Johnson confirmed yesterday that there would be no new restrictions in England due to the Omicron variant.
Mark Drakeford and Nicola Sturgeon have already introduced new rules on hospitality and attendance at sports matches, saying that they were taking pre-emptive action to stop the NHS being overwhelmed in the new year.
In Wales, nightclubs have been closed, table service is required in pubs and restaurants, and a maximum of six people can sit together at hospitality venues. In Scotland, indoor events have been limited to 100 people standing or 200 people seated, and groups meeting inside must be limited to three households.
But the Conservative Party said that the data did not justify taking further measures yet and said that the Labour government in Wales and the SNP in Scotland had over-reacted to the threat.
Backbench MP Andrew Bridgen who has been campaigning against new Covid restrictions said that “Nicola Sturgeon and Mark Drakeford have let Scotland and Wales down badly and shown their true authoritarian nature.
“It’s time for the Government in Westminster to lead, no more Covid restrictions. It’s official that Omicron is mild,” he said.
Alicia Kearns, MP for Rutland and Melton, said that Labour had hung Mark Drakeford out to dry after saying that Boris Johnson was right not to bring in any new restrictions to tackle Covid.
She pointed to the reaction of Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting who said that people in England would be “relieved” that no new restrictions were being introduced, although he called for the data that formed the basis of the decision to be maned public.
Alicia Kearns said: “Seems Labour suddenly agrees that Government is right not to bring in restrictions (despite having called for weeks now for unspecified restrictions despite no data) then what does that say about Mark Drakeford in Labour-led Wales?” she said.
“Is Labour playing politics in England or Wales?”
Tom Hunt, MP for Ipswitch added that no new restrictions was the “correct decision” and again criticised Mark Drakeford and Nicola Sturgeon.
“I really hope we’re approaching the point where we can permanently turn our backs on the kind of illiberal and draconian rules that are now in place in Scotland and Wales,” he said.
“If the Scottish and Welsh Governments want to introduce new restrictions that cause significant economic harm that’s their right. However, they should be prepared to front up to their own electorates and explain how they’re going to pay for it.”
‘Playing politics’
In Wales, Brecon and Radnorshire MP Fay Jones said that it was “welcome news” that there would be no new restrictions in England, which sits on the border with her constituency.
“I’ve been inundated with messages from worried businesses in Brecon and Radnorshire, particularly for those who have competitors across the border. We really must see the evidence,” she said.
Wales’ Conservative Senedd Members also called for stricter restrictions in Wales to be dropped following the decision not to go ahead with them in England.
James Evans, the Senedd Member for Brecon and Radnorshire, said that the Welsh Government “has yet to provide any scientific evidence to back up their new restrictions”.
“The people of Wales are seeing through Mark Drakeford and are furious he is playing politics with their lives,” he said.
Welsh Conservative leader Andrew RT Davies added that no new restrictions were “good news for families and businesses in England”.
“Once again, this reinforces the need for Labour ministers in Cardiff Bay to urgently publish the scientific evidence and advice behind its recent decisions,” he said.
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If they think that the no restrictions are better in England then go there to live.
I have family and friends in
london and the Wirral with the new varient 🦠. Both 3 x jabbed and both middle aged with no
health issues.
I read them your ‘ comments ‘ over the phone this morning but im
afraid im unable to write their replies !
I respect all opinions but most are evidence based not based on political background
A monkey would be better than Johnson.
Why bring monkeys into the debate ? They have done nothing wrong and are generally credited with intelligence. Boris on the other hand ……….
Before the holiday when posts like yours began to be seen the new variant was under 28 days old so there was no evidence and WHO only recognised the variant on 27th November so we still have little hard data. What we do know is that cases were down to 21,000 and are now 140,000. What is also known is that of those 140,000 some 88,000 a day are Omicron.
The bad news? That means cases of the Delta/killer variant have risen from 21,000 to 52,000 a day. Why do you think SAGE is in panic?
Are the Tory’s unaware of the overall picture in Europe and where the UK is currently positioned?
They’d respond that this shows case rates and since vaccines have changed relationship between case rates and hospitalisation rates and/or longer stays in hospital (2+days) for the better that these figures are no longer that important. What we don’t know is whether extremely high case rates might still lead to high hospitalisations and whether inter-generational mixing at Christmas might lead to swell in hospital admissions also. In England they won’t know til it’s too late. We won’t have that issue in Wales but if/when new variant of concern is found we might have even fewer people willing to play ball… Read more »
So sad. These rural members of Westminsters Parliament may be best asking their party colleages in London – just who theae mysterious people are filling up more and more beds each day in their capitals….hospitals 🏥 😢……
The English government garden partied their way out of doing any restrictions. People in England won’t listen to them anymore and their government are cowards and have always been cowards. While every other European country including ours is doing something about it. All the English can do is let their people contract covid because they don’t have a leg to stand on.
The only country in the whole of Europe that is actively allowing a pandemic to rip through their own people is England. They are the ones too cowardly to protect their own people, they are the ones caught out breaking their own rules. They are the ones that will end up killing their own people, while every other government is taking action, they sit on their hands doing nothing because they are cowards.
All that is true. But doesn’t make it right for a min wage employee in Wales potentially to be liable to a fine for following their employer’s instructions and coming into work.
The employer would also be fined £1000 so the measure is designed to force employers in circumstances where working from home is possible to do so. It deters coercive behaviour by employers and management and to make proper consideration for their employees.
Kudos to Welsh Labour for creating such an employee focused rule which should deter middle managers putting employees and their companies at risk.
Fining employer: GOOD
Fining employee: BAD
The law is on your side if your employer instructs you do a task which itself would cause you to break the law – then legally you can refuse and as a result if you are then subsequently dismissed then you can take them to an industry tribunal.
The only problem there is that the Tories have removed free access to the legal process that existed in the 1970s.
We can strengthen free legal aid when Wales gets control of justice in Wales.
I’m not sure the potential for an unfair dismissal award 18 months down the line is the remedy you think it is.
These english nationalist tories may be crowing too soon. The position of the uk tory govt is that while they will not be introducing restrictions before new year’s eve this could change at any time after that if the number of covid admissions to hospitals in england start to cause concern (and media reports in england suggest england’s admission levels may not be too far away from that). So restrictions of the kind we are presently seeing in wales and scotland may yet be introduced in england in the coming weeks. Events in the forthcoming weeks may well prove the… Read more »
Isn’t the point that sometimes different decisions need to be made, isn’t that why health can be and is devolved? There are things that Drakeford has done which are overly authoritarian and seem very difficult to explain, groups of 50 outside only and fines for those going into work for example, but other things which appeared necessary (at least on SAGE’s advice to England from 16/12/21 – specialist advice to Wales remains unpublished?) when the plans were announced. Given that advice pre-Christmas in England was delaying action could see restrictions needed for longer and harder restrictions, I don’t think Drakeford’s… Read more »
Difference in reality; Cymru, like most of Europe, prioritises defending its people.
And many would say that through acceleration of vaccines roll-out that England protected people just in a different way. I don’t think we’ll know what was definitely needed until 2nd week of January but England are happy that their guidance (and compliance rates with this) means they can continue on as they are for now at least. I don’t disagree with Drafeford’s approach based on the information we had at the time the extra restrictions were announce, and because history tells us that it’s worse in winter and going harder and earlier than one would like has been the best… Read more »
Just look at the above map.
But if those cases don’t lead to hospitalisation (or if they don’t lead to extended stays) then does it matter? And if Wales’ rates go as high (because they have previously) then does it matter that Welsh government implemented restrictions? At the moment it’s a bit like a maths exam where Tories clearly didn’t have a clue when asked to show their theory but look like they might get the answer right anyway, and we’re all crossing our fingers that i) that is the case and ii) general public can see through that to where they took a significant risk… Read more »
By the time we find out it may be too late for many of our non vaccinated unfortunately- either ill , hospital bound or worse … a case of better safe than sorry 😢
As a Welshman living in England, I think Boris is playing very clever. He is not implementing restrictions but a lot of the public are. My local rugby club is closed due to Covid, as is my local pub/restaurant. People are staying away and celebrations etc have been cancelled due to staff illness. The majority seem to be restricting themselves and not taking risks. People and companies have cancelled Christmas NYE parties etc. Boris is being very clever and laughing to himself. The funding he gave to the devolved nations will have to be paid back if England sees no… Read more »
These english nationalist tories may be crowing too soon. The position of the uk tory govt is that while they will not be introducing restrictions before new year’s eve this could change at any time after that if the number of covid admissions to hospitals in england start to cause concern (and media reports in england suggest england’s admission levels may not be too far away from that). So restrictions of the kind we are presently seeing in wales and scotland may yet be introduced in england in the coming weeks. Events in the forthcoming weeks may well prove the… Read more »
“No new restriction until after new year” Which is a few days away, so they will be using this time to attack the devolved governments, pretend they themselves are the arbiters of freedom and then in a couple of days time more restrictions. All this will do is make things worse and it really shows they don’t care about what happens to peoples health in their own country. But remember, its Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the planet who are the bad guys.
Interesting to consier just who is ‘out of step’ here. I heard an interview on R4 with the MD of a big hospitality group. He pointed out at once the experts said “don’t party” even thought the Government ignored the advice, his customers dropped away by 50%. So clearly the public are wary of Covid even if the Tory politicians consider themselves immune.
Like most other countries, Wales and Scotland are behaving responsibly and taking this virus seriously, It’s reassuring to know our government can make the hard decisions when it needs to, even when they’re being hampered by the inglish and Welsh tories in the Senedd and Westminster.
Thank goodness Mr Drakeford cares for the people of Wales unlike Johnson who doesn’t see illness and death as a problem.
The Tories are the ones playing pure politics here. Drakeford may well be wrong. Too soon to say. But he is not the one who believes that only English politicians in England have the right to decide what happens in Cymru. He is not the one who sees the populations in the Celtic fringe as lesser beings.
why is it that so many are succumbing to Tory inflammatory terms such as authoritarian? They fail to grasp that these restrictions are only temporary and not permanent. The Welsh government is well intention. It is attempting to save ordinary lives at al. This is hardly being authoritarian. Their purpose for the time being is benevolent one. Why do little Englanders always belief that the right way has to be the correct way? Brainwashing comes to mind
The restrictions imposed by the Welsh and Scottish governments are less restrictive than those that were imposed on England last year by Westminster. Why is it illiberal and authoritarian now, but wasn’t then, when they were imposed by Boris Johnson’s government?
Why is it that so many have succumbed to Tory inflammatory language such as authoritarian? T hey fail to grasp that these restrictions are only temporary and not permanent. The Welsh government is well intentioned. It is attempting to save lives et al. This a hardly being authoritarian. Their purpose for the time being is a benevolent one. Why do Little Englanders seem to accept that the English way is always the right way. Brainwashing comes to mind.
I agree with much of what WG has done this time round, though I would quibble over some of the detail. I think it is very good that there are fines for employers who force their workers to come in to the workplace when they could do the job from home. It would clearly have been better if England and Scotland had made more of an emphasis on workplace safety. I am no “little Englander”. I just happen not to support the Welsh Government blindly. Must I wait for independence before criticising them? As to use of the word “authoritarian”,… Read more »
We have to bear in mind the need to keep the pressure off short-staffed hospitals. I was in South East england over the holiday and observed a seriously unwell woman being sent home from a cardiac surgery ward late on 24th at nil notice and with no support other than friends and family who had to mobilise, also at nil notice. Don’t panic unless you’re ill, and then remember the wisdom of Drakeford and Sturgeon in trying to keep infection levels down.
What the Tory Clowns are doing can be likened to reckless people going up mountains in poor weather. And their rescuers are our NHS staff. New year message to “Welsh Tories” – go East from Wales, keep going, and don’t stop when you get to the border ! The rest of us will have a far happier new year.
Well, well, well, the tories think they have found a way to spin their preference for money over life and death. In all the endless reportage since the pandemic began hardly a sentence has been uttered or written that separates the two words…. Tory….. and business. When it’s over they’ll have the brass neck to keep the body count off their propaganda outlet at the BBC….. OBE anyone?
France, with about half the number of cases as the UK, is introducing a whole raft of additional restrictions so it isn’t the Welsh, Irish and Scots who are out of step.
It seems that Conservative Members of the Senedd had to wait to see what Boris would decide regarding covid restrictions in England before they could vociferously and somewhat self-righteously declare their opposition to the new Welsh covid regulations.
It’s so sad and rather pathetic to see our nominally Welsh representatives following supinely the English party line, but only, of course, after the event. Sad, but no surprise.
Are the English refusing to adopt restrictions because they are too bloody useless and incompetent or because they are politically motivated to hide their general ineptness and stupidity?
Judging by the letter from Kiosk, the English are doing their Gov’s work for them.
Boris is too weak to stand up to his own backbenchers and the CRG.
The elected leaders of the devolved counties are simply trying to do the best for their people.
Unlike Boris – who is doing what he thinks is best for him.
I would reserve the term authoritarian for the kind of government that wants to ban protest, and limit the powers of the courts. [ e.g. Russia, Poland, Hungary, Belarus and Westminster]
Yes, Westminster is one of the governments attacking the powers of the courts. Johnson’s moves to limit the judicial review system are “a worrying assault on the legal system and attempt to avoid accountability” according to former cabinet minister David Davis.
How come the Welsh Tories waited until their English masters made a decision BEFORE criticising the Welsh Government? They will now have to explain why it’s a good idea when the Westminster government undoubtedly introduces tougher measures in early January, but first let’s have one last super spreading shindig before we do something about it
Er you dont sound like the kind of person who’d know many young people 🤔 PS. Is that the best fake name for your fake profile that you could come up with?
A very imaginative contrebution / we in ‘ north east ‘ Wales rarely use this term…which tends to be a favourite of the Cardiff media or folk who dont know us.
Can i suggest you might consider one of the following for your next piece ☝️
1. Deeside – used by young people
2. Flintshire – more political types
3. Clwyd – people my age
4. Wrexham – people who
would die rather than use N E
Wales.
Hope this helps and will add to
reality of the piece.
Off to Chester eh? The border should be closed behind them until they’ve had a sanity all clear..meanwhile those endorsing such behaviour should be locked up to protect the public.
Your role is to represent Wales not England. If that’s a problem try getting elected for Westminster.
With a substantial rise in Covid cases in Wales announced today the current restrictions are correct and a necessity to protect not only the Welsh public but our NHS. And I find the moronic attitude of those cretinous Conservative MPs who criticise Wales & Scotland more measured approach to curb rises in Covid childish while figures in England continue to skyrocket childish & pathetic! Those Tory MPs are quite content to see a free-for-all pandemic party in England to appease a minority of far-right ERG buffoons stagering. I can predict come the New Year the Tories will regret their ill-judged… Read more »
It has to be lives before the economy – so Drakeford and Sturgeon are right to impose tougher restrictions. It is better safe than sorry. Even if just one life is saved – it would be worth it. Sadly the Tories in England are looking at the percentages – what a cruel and inhumane way to act.